1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connection box to be mounted with electrical components and an electronic control device on the surface of one side thereof.
2. Description of Background Information
Conventionally, an electrical connection box installed in an automobile engine compartment, such as the structure shown in FIG. 6, has been known. This electrical connection box 51 houses an electric circuit which is not illustrated herein. In addition, on the surface of one side on the electrical connection box 51, a plurality (9 pieces) of electrical component housing areas 52 is provided. By mounting here electrical components such as fuses, relays, etc., that are not illustrated here, the electrical components can be electrically connected with the above-mentioned electric circuit.
Furthermore, on one side of the above-mentioned election connection box 51 an electronic control device 53 is mounted, and is electrically connected with the above-mentioned electric circuit through a connection area 55. The electronic control device 53 performs a certain control by receiving power from the electric circuit based on the output sent from this electric circuit other than the power source.
In the structure thus provided with the electronic control device 53 on the surface of one side on such an electrical connection box 51, a plurality of electrical component housing areas 52 (electrical components) is provided with a necessary number of areas (in this case, 9 pieces) at a position where a space 54 occupied by the electronic control device 53 is excluded, as shown in FIG. 6. Therefore, a connection area 55 where the electronic control device 53 is electrically connected with the above-mentioned electric circuit only occupies a portion of the occupied area 54. However, the surface of one side on the electric connection box 51 had to be widened due to the occupied area 54. Therefore, the electric connection box 51 had to be made larger in scale, making it necessary to increase the production costs.
The present invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and the object of the present invention is to reduce the size of an electric connection box on which electrical components and electric control device are mounted, thereby reducing production costs.